Oxidative addition, reactions carbene complexes

Organometallic complexes of copper, silver, and gold are ideal precursors for carbene complexes along with some C- and N-coordinated species. Their reactivity pattern, in particular in oxidative addition reactions, was the most comprehensively studied. 

The majority of gold(I) carbene complexes are pure organometallic compounds and the are out of the scope of this work. Some halide or triphenylphosphine carbene complexes are known and they will be considered here. Nucleophilic addition of alcohols or amines to gold-coordinated isocyanides is one of the best-established methods to obtain gold carbene derivatives. The reaction of H[Au(CN)2] with propene oxide and estirene oxide yields (cyano)carbene complexes (380) avoiding the intermediate step.2257 A cyclic carbene compound is obtained by reaction of a dinuclear isocyanide with amine (Scheme 32).2258... 

M. F. Lappert, and A. J. Oliver, A Three-Fragment Oxidative Addition Reaction as a Route to Transition Metal Carbene Complexes Imidoyl Halides and Rhodium(I) Compounds as Precursors for Rhodium(III) Carbenes, J. Chem Soc., Chem. Comm. 1972, 274-275. 

Switching from palladium to rhodium, we encounter some very interesting chemistry. Zeng et al. [302] reacted the tiidentate PCP phosphino functionalised imidazolium salt with silver(I) oxide and subsequently transferred the carbene to rhodium(I) (see Figure 3.100). Careful selection of the rhodium precursor complex and reaction conditions enables tetrahedral, square bipyramidal and octahedral rhodium(I) and rhodium(III) complexes to be formed. As the authors explained, the activation of the C-Cl bond in methylene chloride in an oxidative addition reaction on rhodium(I) resulting in a rhodium(in) complex requires an electron rich rhodium(I) complex. The presence of a NHC ligand is advantageous in this respect. 

Rh(TTP) reacts with alkyl halides, acyl halides, aroyl halides, and sulfonyl halides, but it shows no evidence of reaction with molecular hydrogen. These observations further emphasize the fact that Rh(TTP) is essentially a nucleophile and it therefore reacts with those reagents RX that can oxidatively add by nucleophilic attack (34). Rh(TTP) does not react with H2, and H2 seems always to add to (P complexes via a concerted mechanism (35). It appears that Rh(TTP) has very little diradical character, i.e. it is not a good analog of a carbene (35). It is possible that this unreactivity may be associated with the stereochemistry of chelation by the macrocyclic ligand. Earlier studies on the oxidative addition reactions of Rh(I) complex with a tetraaza macrocycle revealed that the Rh(I) had strong nucleophilic properties but the activation of molecular H2 was not reported (36, 37). This possibility is supported by reports that dialkyl sulfide complexes of rhodium chloride catalyze the hydrogenation of olefins (38). 

Imidoyl chloride Cl(Ph)C = NMe forms carbene complexes in the course of oxidative addition reactions to metal compounds in their low oxidation states. 

Carbene complexes possessing metal atoms in low oxidation states undergo oxidative addition reactions ... 

The carbene mechanism of COER according to our hypothesis consists of forward (Z = O, X = Y = C) and backward (X = O, Y = Z = O) Wittig-like reactions. A transition metal-carbene complex reacts with a carbonyl compound generating an olefin and transition metal oxo-complex. Then the oxo-complex reacts with another olefin generating a new carbonyl compound and regenerating the transition metal-carbene complex. It is known that oxo-alkylidene complexes can be generated via oxidative addition reaction between some tungsten complexes with carbonyl compounds. 

Oxidative addition reactions of imidazolium salts to electron-rich, coordinatively unsaturated Ni (NHC)2 complexes have been used to synthesize Ni(ii) tris(carbene)-nickel-hydrido complexes (Equation (15))." ... 

Xu S, Manna K, Ellem A, Sadow AD. Mixed N-heterocyclic carbene-bis(oxazolinyl) borato rhodium and iridium complexes in photochemical and thermal oxidative addition reactions. OrganometaUics. 2014 33 6840-6860. 

It is notable that two different types of dienes have been produced depending on the structure of a,p-unsaturated substrates. Similar reaction mechanisms can be proposed oxidative addition-Pd carbene formation-migratory insertion affords intermediate E. Diene A is released with subsequent p-H elimination for the cyclic or linear substrates without hydrogen at the 8-position. Otherwise, complex E prefers to undergo rearrangement to give intermediate G for cyclic... 

The ease of formation of the carbene depends on the nucleophilicity of the anion associated with the imidazolium. For example, when Pd(OAc)2 is heated in the presence of [BMIM][Br], the formation of a mixture of Pd imidazolylidene complexes occurs. Palladium complexes have been shown to be active and stable catalysts for Heck and other C-C coupling reactions [34]. The highest activity and stability of palladium is observed in the ionic liquid [BMIM][Brj. Carbene complexes can be formed not only by deprotonation of the imidazolium cation but also by direct oxidative addition to metal(O) (Scheme 5.3-3). These heterocyclic carbene ligands can be functionalized with polar groups in order to increase their affinity for ionic liquids. While their donor properties can be compared to those of donor phosphines, they have the advantage over phosphines of being stable toward oxidation. 

The [3S+1C] cycloaddition reaction with Fischer carbene complexes is a very unusual reaction pathway. In fact, only one example has been reported. This process involves the insertion of alkyl-derived chromium carbene complexes into the carbon-carbon a-bond of diphenylcyclopropenone to generate cyclobutenone derivatives [41] (Scheme 13). The mechanism of this transformation involves a CO dissociation followed by oxidative addition into the cyclopropenone carbon-carbon a-bond, affording a metalacyclopentenone derivative which undergoes reductive elimination to produce the final cyclobutenone derivatives. 

Diazoalkanes are u.seful is precursors to ruthenium and osmium alkylidene porphyrin complexes, and have also been investigated in iron porphyrin chemistry. In an attempt to prepare iron porphyrin carbene complexes containing an oxygen atom on the /(-carbon atom of the carbene, the reaction of the diazoketone PhC(0)C(Ni)CH3 with Fe(TpCIPP) was undertaken. A low spin, diamagnetic carbene complex formulated as Fe(TpCIPP)(=C(CH3)C(0)Ph) was identified by U V-visible and fI NMR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Addition of CF3CO2H to this rapidly produced the protonated N-alkyl porphyrin, and Bit oxidation in the presence of sodium dithionitc gave the iron(II) N-alkyl porphyrin, both reactions evidence for Fe-to-N migration processes. ... 

Besides dissociation of ligands, photoexcitation of transition metal complexes can facilitate (1) - oxidative addition to metal atoms of C-C, C-H, H-H, C-Hal, H-Si, C-0 and C-P moieties (2) - reductive elimination reactions, forming C-C, C-H, H-H, C-Hal, Hal-Hal and H-Hal moieties (3) - various rearrangements of atoms and chemical bonds in the coordination sphere of metal atoms, such as migratory insertion to C=C bonds, carbonyl and carbenes, ot- and P-elimination, a- and P-cleavage of C-C bonds, coupling of various moieties and bonds, isomerizations, etc. (see [11, 12] and refs, therein). 

As mentioned in the discussion of the reaction mechanism for this transformation, the active species is a dicoordinate Pd(0) complex, and it is unclear whether an associative or a dissociative process is operative for oxidative addition. In this context, different NHC complexes containing only one carbene ligand have been tested in the Mizoroki-Heck reaction. The most successful are those prepared by Beller, which were able to perform the Mizoroki-Heck reaction of non-activated aryl chlorides with moderate to good yields in ionic liquids (Scheme 6.13). The same compounds have also been applied to the Mizoroki-Heck reaction of aryldiazonium... 

The use of well-defined complexes has been widespread in this reaction, despite intriguing studies by Beller and others that have shown that in situ catalytic systems often give better yields in comparison to isolated carbene-Pd(O) complexes [147-149]. Since the mechanism consists of an oxidative addition on a Pd(0)-monocarbene species, efforts in catalyst synthesis have been directed towards Pd(ll)-monocarbene complexes with other labile groups that can be easily released leading to the formation of Pd(0). This is the case for dimers of the type [Pd( j,-C1)C1(NHC)]2, a family of pre-catalysts effective under aerobic conditions [150], the [Pd(acac)Cl(NHC)] complexes [151] and related palladacycles [152-154],... 

Ru, Os, and Ir carbene complexes have been prepared from reactions of anionic or low-valent metal complexes with some organic salts or neutral compounds with highly ionic bonds. Oxidative addition of halothiazole and -oxazole species to IrCl(CO)(PMe2Ph)2 affords Ir(III) complexes which on protonation yield cationic carbenes (69), e.g.,... 

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